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A B-17 Flying Fortress bomber that crashed into the Baltic Sea in 1943 has been located by marine archaeologists more than 80 years after it was lost.
The project was led by Dr Piotr Bojakowski from Texas A&M University, in collaboration with the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), as part of an effort to trace the remains of the tens of thousands of American service members who are still unaccounted for from past wars.
The goal of this mission, launched from Kiel Bay, Germany, in summer 2025, was to locate the wreckage of an aircraft that had been reported by a local diver in 2001. The team used advanced underwater exploration technologies, such as side-scan sonar-imaging and magnetometry metal detection, to carry out the remote sensing survey of a 1km-square area to find the exact location of the wreck. Anomalies identified on the sea floor were then investigated using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). When the ROV confirmed that they had come across an image that looked promising, Dr Bojakowski, members of his team, and volunteers from the Nordic Maritime Group dived down to the site to confirm the finding.
There, they discovered the remains of a downed four-engined heavy bomber aircraft, which was buried under decades of sediment and marine growth. Among the debris scatter, various features were visible, including engines, parts of a wing, a cockpit window, a tyre, and a fuel tank.
Project members were also able to recover two of the aircraft’s .50-calibre machine-guns. Once cleaned, the serial numbers on the guns could be seen. It is hoped that archival research into these numbers will allow positive identification of both the aircraft and the individuals lost in the crash.
Plans for full excavation of the wreck site have yet to be determined.
Image: Jens Lindström
